Michelle road her new KLX 250. Which performed quite well with a minimum of Modifications.

We rode the Short Loop of Day 2 which will be 127 Miles. The Long Loop which we skipped, will include Singletrack and a Loop over and down Whale Hill and will be right around 155 miles.

Day 2 will start with a section below Mount Shavano and a Reset at Blanks Cabin. An old miners Cabin below Mt. Shavano. A stop at the old Smeltertown Smokestack , then dirt roads along the Tennessee Pass following the Arkansas River to up and then over Hayden Pass. The burnt area on Hayden Pass appears to be recovering quite well. The ride down the west side of Hayden Pass was not near as rocky as in the past, but it's still early in the year. And once Jeeps start coming up, it will get rougher.

The view of the San Luis valley was as always, spectacular. After a section below the Sangre de Cristos with lotsa solid rocks in the ground, we did a fuel stop Craig Givant dropt fuel for at 70 miles. Then Lunch at 80 miles in an ancient Aspen grove in the Bonanza area. From lunch it was Old Mining roads and Aspen groves to the Rawley Mine, from where you can then decide if you want to do the 25 mile Long loop section. Which is the most challenging of the Day and up and over 12,000 feet.

If you decide to do the short Loop, you short cut to the Otto Mears Toll road built in the 1870s. Which goes up an over where the Sangre de Cristo's tie into the Collegiate Peaks. Then you will have the Option of riding some awesome Singletrack down the Rainbow trail to the old of townsite of Shirley and Pavement back to the Fairgrounds in Poncha Springs.

A 127 mile Dual Sport ride in the Rocky Mountains, if you stop to site see and take photos should take around 7 hours and would get you back to the Fairgrounds in time to enjoy the Camaraderie of others.

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Most of those trails look passable on an ADV bike. Would you agree? Not sure if more extreme trails didn't get photographed like is common. Sometimes pucker factor eliminates photography. Looks like fun!

NC

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Most of those trails look passable on an ADV bike. Would you agree? Not sure if more extreme trails didn't get photographed like is common. Sometimes pucker factor eliminates photography. Looks like fun!

NC

NC, Most of this route would be ADV friendly if you can ride. Quite fun and entertaining really. The passes over the Divide nobody would claim are friendly. Passable ? Yes. This is actually a better ADV ride in the same area: